


Planned Obsolescence

by cherrylime



Category: Borderlands, Tales of the Borderlands
Genre: Ableism, Bad Jokes, Boys Kissing, Canon Disabled Character, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Friendship, M/M, Prosthesis, Romance, gayperion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-02
Updated: 2016-04-02
Packaged: 2018-05-30 16:10:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6431287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherrylime/pseuds/cherrylime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Don’t tell me you haven’t heard about how Hyperion designs all of its prosthetics to become obsolete after about a year?” Yvette said.</p><p>Rhys made a face like he’d clearly never heard of this before.  “I spent my entire eridium mining deal bonus on these cybernetics.  This was a really expensive set of hardware, Yvette.  That can’t be true.”</p><p>Yvette stole one of Rhys’ fries.  “It’s true.  Jahncke in manufacturing was going on and on about how she had to replace her leg again a few months ago.”</p><p>“That’s the evilest thing I’ve ever heard of.”  Vaughn said.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Planned Obsolescence

Vaughn and Rhys retreated back to their apartment on their lunch break. Yvette, usually the one to drag all three of them out to the restaurant in the Hub of Heroism for lunch, was out of the office until tomorrow for a conference on the far side of Helios. Vaughn was always happy to avoid eating machine-prepared, Hyperion-issued slop when he could, so he’d convinced Rhys to eat at home that day. 

It also meant that they had the apartment to themselves for once.

Rhys pulled Vaughn close. For the past few minutes, Rhys hadn’t been paying any attention to the awful middle of the day TV they’d been watching, instead interested in a different kind of lunch break entertainment. There was still a good half hour before either of them were expected anywhere and Rhys wanted to make the most of it.

Rhys slid his organic hand into Vaughn’s hair, placing a soft kiss on the side of his neck. Vaughn laughed, angling his head to expose more of the delicate skin of his neck to Rhys.

“Really, Rhys? Right now?” 

Rhys planted another kiss, a bit higher this time. “We’ve got time.”

Vaughn shifted, tugging Rhys on top of him. “No hickeys today, alright? Robinson from HR wouldn’t stop giving me a hard time about it last week.”

“Who cares about Robinson?” But Rhys turned his attention away from Vaughn’s neck. He grazed his teeth across Vaughn’s earlobe instead. 

Vaughn slid one of his hands over Rhys’ ass, moving the other one to tease Rhys’ nipple through the thin fabric on his button-up shirt. Rhys groaned quietly and slipped the thumb of his cybernetic hand under the waistband of Vaughn’s dress pants. He leaned down to kiss Vaughn.

“Ow!” Vaughn squirmed under him, pulling away. “Watch what you’re doing with that hand, okay? You’re squeezing my hip pretty hard.”

“Oh my god, sorry, I didn’t realize.” 

Rhys sat back on Vaughn’s thighs, willing his non-organic hand to let go. He grabbed his metal wrist in his other hand, tugging at it as roughly as he dared.  
“I think it’s jammed.” 

“What do you mean, jammed? Get it off please, it hurts.”

“Sorry, it usually only gets like this when the battery’s dying.” Rhys urged the fingers to release. “I know I plugged it in last night, like always.”

“Rhys,” Vaughn said.

With practiced dexterity, Rhys started to undo the top buttons on his shirt one-handed.

“Can we get your hand to stop crushing me first?” Vaughn joked, sounding a bit strained.

“I can’t reach the arm’s release lever if my shirt’s buttoned up all the way. It’s on my back.”

Rhys reached back, under the shirt, finding the short switch on his back with the tips of his fingers. It was set low into the metal rim the arm’s port, a pain to get to even when he wasn’t attached to his boyfriend via death grip. 

Flipping the switch into its release position, Rhys grunted as the attachment points within the arm’s port unhooked and the entire limb went slack as it lost its connection to his nervous system. He popped it out of the socket with his organic hand. It bounced once on the couch cushions before slithering off the slick material and onto the floor, landing on the cheap carpeting with a thud. 

“Are you okay?” Rhys lifted the hem of Vaughn’s shirt, pulling it away from his hip.

Vaughn rubbed his fingers gently over his pale skin. “That’s going to leave a mark.”

“I’m sorry. Does it still hurt?

“No, it’s fine now. Anyway, at least it’s somewhere Robinson won’t see it.” Vaughn grinned.

“I don’t know what happened with my arm. Can I make it up to you?” 

Vaughn smirked. “With your mouth, maybe.”

Rhys smiled and leaned forward.

After their pleasant diversion, Rhys left the arm to charge at home and went to work without it. He’d lived with only one arm for most of his life, right up until he’d come to work for Hyperion, and he was perfectly capable of doing his job with it. 

\--

Rhys’ alarm clock woke them both up, ringing shrilly, in the before-dawn hours of the morning. Vaughn got up before Rhys could hit snooze, flicking on the lights. Rhys grumbled wordlessly, pulling the striped green and blue comforter over his head.

Vaughn went into the bathroom, turning on the shower. He brushed his teeth at the sink, and flossed, intermittently checking the shower temperature. Once the water was warm, he pulled the blanket off Rhys.

“Come on, the hot water’s not going to last forever.”

Rhys batted him away, rolling over. 

“Honestly, you do this every day. If you don’t shower now you’ll be late.” 

Groaning, Rhys got up and followed Vaughn into the bathroom. 

\--

Clean and dry, Rhys shuffled over to his arm’s charging station in his slippers. A small yellow light burned on the palm, indicating that it was fully charged. Rhys pulled the arm from its mount and slotted it into place, wincing just a little as everything connected properly. It didn’t hurt exactly, but it wasn’t a pleasant feeling popping it back in.

He took the arm through its full range of motion. Rhys did a few arm circles, bent the elbow as far as it would go, and tested all of his digits separately and together. He didn’t usually remember to do this every morning, although his prosthetist had told him he should, and it was probably better to be extra careful given the accident yesterday.

Rhys couldn’t detect any weakness or lag in the arm’s operation at all. It worked like it had every other day except yesterday. He shrugged, finished getting ready for work, and left with Vaughn for each of their respective cubicles.

\--

Yvette met both of them at the Hub of Heroism for lunch. Vaughn ordered a salad, eying Rhys’ skag burger suspiciously.

“I’m not sure how you can stomach that.” Vaughn said.

“It’s great, that’s how.”

Rhys’ hand locked up again, squeezing the burger until greasy mush ran out between his fingers. 

“Not this again,” he griped. Vaughn passed Rhys a fistful of napkins. 

“Maybe your arm is just trying to hold on to the things you love.”

Yvette looked at Rhys incredulously. “This isn’t the first time your arm’s done that?”

“Are you kidding? It’s been like this all day. Honestly, nothing about it works like it’s supposed to do today. First, I dropped my favorite coffee mug-”

“The one I gave you with the matching socks?” Vaughn interrupted. 

“Yeah, exactly that one! My hand just opened completely by itself. And then later Henderson was giving me some reports to work on and my cybernetic hand squeezed so hard that it crumpled all the paper.” Rhys rubbed his eyes with his organic hand. “It was really embarrassing. I’ve just been waiting for things to go wrong again all day.”

“Don’t tell me you haven’t heard about how Hyperion designs all of its prosthetics to become obsolete after about a year?” Yvette said.

Rhys made a face like he’d clearly never heard of this before. “I spent my entire eridium mining deal bonus on these cybernetics. This was a really expensive set of hardware, Yvette. That can’t be true.”

Yvette stole one of Rhys’ fries. “It’s true. Jahncke in manufacturing was going on and on about how she had to replace her leg again a few months ago.”

“That’s the evilest thing I’ve ever heard of.” Vaughn said.

“I don’t believe it. Why don’t they have us do that with the guns too, hm? I probably just need to update the arm’s software or something.”

Yvette shrugged. “Whatever you say.”


End file.
